Article: U.S: Soil Samples Link Sudan Factory to VX Manufacturing

U.S. intelligence said Tuesday that soil samples from the area of a Sudan pharmaceutical factory, hit by cruise missiles last week by the U.S. force, showed traces of an ingredient for making deadly VX gas.

"It is a substance that has no commercial applications. It doesn't occur naturally in the environment. It's not a byproduct of any other chemical process. The only thing you can use it for, that we know of, is to make VX," a senior U.S. intelligence official said.

He said the chemical found in the soil samples was EMPTA, or o-ethylmethylphosphonothioic acid.

The soil samples were taken clandestinely in the last few months, the senior official said. He declined to say who took them but ...

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